Blood and snow
by Alaster Boneman
Summary: A young woman runs for hers and a child's life though a snow storm. As her latest trial unfolds she relives the memories of her past and how she ended up running for hear life. Prologue.


Blood and snow a Skyrim fan fiction by Alaster Boneman

Au: Yes this story is going to based be around my character eventually. Know I won't be making him a Mary sue or whatever a male version of a Mary sue is called. I'm not sure but you get my point. If this story should be successful I may weight more so this with either remain a prologue or evolve into the story proper.

Also I know this may come as a shock to all of you but I don't know everything there is to know about elder scrolls or even Skyrim for that matter. I have a basic working knowledge. I have not completed, every quest I have not talked to everyone, I have not seen and done everything. I don't even think that's possible so keep that in mind.

Also I do not want to hear much if anything about your guy characters, adventures or how your guys or girls could beat my guy's ass. I really don't care this, is a story not a measuring contest. I will happily take constructive criticism and if you people would really like to see something incorporated into this story or my future stories please tell me and I will try my best to accommodate you.

This story was made for non-profit. Unfortunately I do not own Bethesda.

**Snow fall**

The howl of the wind was a kin to the cry a lone wolf. The wind swept through the tall pine trees, lonely valleys and hills it's icily breathe that racked though the landscape whipping the freshly falling show fakes into an edict dance as they fell from the slate overcast skies to cover everything in flawless white. Here and there though the snow drifts, barren branches of low lying brushes poked out of the show like the fingers of corpus picked to the bone as they had long since shed their leaves before the kiss of winter.

A small light grey rabbit braved the cold to chew on the few grasses hardy enough to cling to life in this the coldest time of the year. Suddenly it heard a crack pierce the eerily quiet of the country side, its long ears twitched to stand upright, it sniffed the cold air for scent of predator, finding none it went back to its meal. Again it heard another crack closer this time, fear griped its small heart and it bolted as a woman ran though the icily drifts. She ran, clumsily crushing though brittle braches trying desperately to stay upright while stumbling though the two feet of fresh snow.

She was dressed from head to toe in cheap ratty furs and a well-worn dress and hood that protected her face from the worst of the cold. She cared a small whiling bundle in her arms close to her chest trying desperately to keep the baby warm and away from her pursuers. Her muscles burned with exhaustion screaming at her to stop. She did not, she didn't even slow down as she continued to ran heedless though the lonely woods.

Even though the woman was fit and young she was reaching the end of her endurance. She needed to find some safe place to rest out of this snow storm that wiped around her. She hoped at least, her pursuers had lost her tail in this snow storm. She had not seen a sign of them for more than half an hour. Even so she could not let her self believe that she was free of them yet.

Sometime pasted how much the young woman could not say but the sky darking and the air grew colder, if that was even possible. She was beyond exhausted, she felt like she had been running for hours. She was seeking some kind of safe haven, for herself and the child. Though he was not hers by blood, she had made a vow to care for the baby and by the divine's she would see this task done even at the cost her own life. She had a debit to repay and a promise to keep.

Her breaths came in short heaving pants ghosting though the freezing air.

Because of the falling snow visibility was poor and in her heedless run she nearly ran head long into a tree. She managed to stop her run before smacking head first into it; her old and worn hood was torn from her face by a low lying branch that drew a strip of blood across her cheek. She managed to dodge round the rest of the old weathered tree.

Her face was now reviled to the biting wind. She had long silky black hair which had once been held in long beards but now hung around her face in a mess of spit ends and loose knots. Her checks were high and rosy, her nose small and button shaped. Her eyes were the colour of turned earth. The flesh around her right eye was swollen and red. Her jaw and mouth was small and round with a small burn scar across it, her ears ever so pointed.

"That was to close" Laura Mulawoth muttered, she briefly saw her refection in a sheet of glass like ice that hung from the tree. Her looks betrayed her Breton heritage, in better times had won the eye of many men she crossed paths with. Those times had ended, what now seemed like a life time ago.

The ramshackle collection of tents and small wooded huts it was a poor imitation of the home that taken from her weeks early. Those who gathered in the refugee camp were a tired, down beaten lot, gathered from the far corners of Skyrim. The old and the young, the rich and the poor, most were refuges from the civil war that split Skyrim asunder. Alas it had not been just the Storm Clocks and the Imperial legion's pointless blood shed that had forced her from heart and home.

No, something far worse than the blood shed from that pointless conflict, had forced Laura from her home in the Eastmarch. She like too many other refugees had fled from the dragons that had started appearing almost a full year ago.

She had not believed the story's at first. The sheer idea that dragons had come back to wreak a terrible ruin upon Skyrim and the Nirn at large was imposable to comprehend. Her laughter would have drowned out all those who had claimed such a thing.

The memory of how wrong she had been still burned in her like the blacken scars that that cress crossed much of her once flawless body. She didn't laugh anymore; she hadn't so much as chuckled since that terrible day.

Flash back

Laura's long day of hard work was finally coming to an end. Magnus day light was falling behind the horizon and twilight which in turn gave way to the gathering night. Bright stars sparked like gems in the sky above Nirn, 'Magnus's children were smiling tonight' she though warmly. The night was quiet expect for the chittering of insects and the calls of night time birds and beasts that hunted them as well as the few towns folk who were out having a drink or finishing up their days work. Her body was tired from a long day working her family's plot and tending to their livestock. So the last thing she needed now was her younger brother's antics.

Her two twelve year old twin brothers Shar'man and Davio'o were running about their small family house playing an improvised game of tag. How the two young boys had any energy left after the long day was beyond her. They shared many of the same Breton traits, high cheek bones with small wiry frames.

Though that's where their similarities ended. Davio'o's hair was a shade lighter than his brother or her, closer to brown than the pitch black of his siblings. More like their mothers natural hair colour that had in life had been a deep brown. That wasn't the only difference between the two. Despite being twins they couldn't be any different to each other. Where Davio'o was tall and lean and well on his way to losing his childish looks. Shar'man was nearly a head shorter and still had much of his baby fat around his face, his eyes were however closer to their mother's amber rather than the brown the rest of his siblings had inherited from their father.

Both continued their play, heedless of Laura's hot glare or how her tired she was. Laura tried to get them calmed down for bed but nothing had worked so in desperation she looked to her father, 'Byrock'.

He was sitting in a small worn wooden chair by their small ash dirty fire place pretending to read an old battered book. Laura caught a glimpse of her father's eyes; she could tell he was enjoying the sight of his eighteen year old daughter trying to play den mouther to her over active brothers.

"Come on you two its time you go to bed." Laura told them sternly putting her hands to her hips with her elbows pointed outward giving them both a stare that would on any other day cow a the two. However today was set against her since first light. Four of their chickens had been taken by a fox that somehow slipped though the fence. Their eldest cow had been spooked by the arrival of a few storm cloaks soldiers that had passed though the town. The old cow had escaped her harness and run amuck though the freshly sown fields of carrots and other vegetables uprooting or destroying most of them. Now her brothers were intent on prolonging the day as long as they could. "Please Shar'man, Davio'o just go to bed! I'm not in the mood tonight" she said holding a hand to her head as she felt a headache building. "Papa, please help me with these two?"

Byrock looked up from his book. The light of the fireplace illuminated his old wreathed face and the smirk that filled his face. "Davio'o, Shar'man do as your sister says or their will be no sweet rolls for the next two mouths" he said.

"But papa! We are just having some fun!" Shar'man protested his voice cracking ever so slightly as both he and his brother's body's marched ever onwards to adult hood.

"Yar" Davio'o agreed with a nod.

"No back talking either or you can forget visiting your Aunt Lasuer in Windhelm next Week" Byrock's told them sternly.

The boys stopped their lolly gaging and gave their older sister and elderly father pleading puppy dog eye "But Papa" both boys protested.

She smirked and pointed at their room "No but's" Laura told them.

Both boys looked to each other than nodded in defeat. They went to their room and climbed into their beds. Laura tucked them in. "Do you want me to read you a bed time story?" Laura asked her voice now having lost its edge had how regained its usually sweet tong.

"Laura, we're too old for stories" Davio'o said his face full of annoyance at been told off for having a bit of fun. Shar'man nodded in agreement.

"Oh really?" she asked walking over to an old battered chest. She unlocked the chest and reached inside pulling a book out. She walked back to her bothers and pulled a stool up next to their beds. "I just thought you would like to hear the tale of… the Red Eagle" Laura showing them the book. It was new, she had bought it a few weeks past from a traveling Khajiit merchant. It had cost her five bronze septims a good price.

"The Red Eagle I love that story!" Shar'man said glee filling his voice.

"Well if you too old… then I will just have to give this away next week when we in Windhelm" Laura told with a heavy regretful shy.

"You…you…wouldn't dare! Would you?" Davio'o asked as he crewed his lip nervously.

"Maybe?" Laura told them trying to keep her face completely serious even know she was moments away from bursting into open into laughter.

"Laura, don't be cruel!" Byrock told her sternly as he stood in the door way having apparently left his chair and book by the fire place.

"Ok Papa" she said. "You two listening?" she asked her two younger brothers nodded excitement filling their wide brown eyes. "Once a long time ago…" she started telling the tale of the Red Eagle. She changed her voice for each of the characters; however she only got to the third chapter of the epic tail when her bothers fell into a dream filled sleep. She closed the book a smile filling her petty face. She gave both her brothers a kiss on their foreheads and blew out the sputtering candles in their shared room. She stared at her brother's sleeping forms a smile crept cross her face "May the divine's watch over you as you sleep"

The house they lived in was not large. Five rooms in all, her bothers had shared a room since they were born. Their home had a small living room which severed as both kitchen and library. There was her room which was the smallest not that she minded. Her family could not afford much in the way of space. Her parents room though it was just her father's room now.

Her mother had passed away the year before last. She was bitten by a Root viper which was a large reddish snake with black and gold stipes that was native to the Rift and Eastmarch. It was said that the snakes weren't deadly if one were fit and heathy. However her mouther had just fended of a fever when she was bitten. Her body just could not handle the strain. Then there was their basement which held some of their family's meagre belongings.

Byrock stood in the doorway watching his daughter put her bothers to bed pride filling his dark eyes. His late wife, Mollerin would be so proud of how their daughter had grown so much in the few last years. It saddened him that his beloved would not see Laura grow into a woman or get married and have children of her own. Alas the divines had called Mollerin to the _hereafter_ and he knew that one day he too would join her in eternity. It was not a man's place to question the will of the gods. He hoped however, he wold live many more years to come so he could see his children grow into the fine people he knew they would become. "Mara has blessed you sweetie, you will be a wonderful mother one day Laura" he said quietly so he would not wake his young sons.

"Papa!" Laura gasped as she stood up to look him in the eye before leaving her bothers room closing the wooded door behind her. Her father fallowed her into the living room.

"I only say it because it's true" Byrock stated plainly.

She eyed him careful "I thought you wanted me the wait for a few more years before thinking about marriage" Laura putting her hand on her hips in a good imitation of her late mother.

"That is true" he confirmed. "I hope that dark elf boy knows that?" Byrock told her plainly his black eyebrows razed.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her father "On not this again! How many times must I say this Veerak and I are just friends? All he does is tells me wonderful tales and poems" Laura said wistfully.

"Yar" Byrock shorted rolling his eyes. "You and half the women in Sulag'g gully… you may think me too hard on the boy, but I don't want to see you're heartbroken" he told her kindly.

"I swear by Dibella! There is nothing between us…. And even if there was! Isn't it my heart and mine to brake if I wish?" Laura said shooting her father a glare that would have cowed a giant.

Byrock lifted up his hands in a show of defeat. "Very well… I'm just looking out for you Laura you may see who you wish. As you say it is your heart and you may do with it as you wish… Just be careful my love. You have been smiled upon by Dibella and grow more beautiful by the day however you will always be my little girl." He said kindly offering a hug to his daughter which she expected. They hugged for a good minute before parting. He then stiffed a yawn. "I think it is past time we both went to bed we have another long day head of us tomorrow". Laura let out a small giggle. "Isn't it always a long day?" she asked jokingly Byrock's weather beaten face spit into a wide grin as he scratched his wispy beard "Well said... Good night, may the Nine watch over you" he said before turning to enter his room. She shook her head and smiled warmly "May they watch over you to, night Papa" Laura said stifling her own yawn. She put out the fire place and the candles and went to her own bed and soon fell asleep.

Laura didn't know what had awakened her, everything was quiet and still. The only noise that précised the night was the creaking of the old house. Despite all evidence that this was just another night in a plain old boring town, where she had lived her whole life. She felt something amiss, it was nothing obvious like the cries of livestock warning of some night time predator. Nor was it the sound of some theft looking for septims to steal, if anything it was the lack of noise that unnerved her there were no cries of bats in the night and ever insects chatter was aspect. Unable to clear her mind of the worry that kept her from sleep, Laura slipped out of bed. She reached into to her modest wardrobe and pulled out her ratty work clothes and a thick fur coat to hold off the bite of the night's cold. Finding a pair of hind shoes, she dressed herself. She quietly slipped out of her small room quietly crept into the living room. She took a lantern and a few matches of a shelf. She lit the lantern and checked in on her father and her brothers, they were sleeping peacefully. She did not linger in their rooms for fear of wakening them up. She tried to dispel the feeling of dread that crept into her heart but could not. It grew stronger with each moment that passed like some kind of sixth sense trying to warn her of impending doom. It soon got to the point where she could clearly feel fear twist in her gut. A strange kind of determination grew out of her fear. She would face whatever was causing this feeling whether it was some imagined phantom or a real threat. Feeling her courage grow stronger she went down into her basement and opened an old wooded chest that was filled with odds and ends. She soon found what she was looking for and she took out a heavy clothed item. She removed the cloth wrap and revealed an old, worn steel sword. It was her father's, a keep sake from his, short lived career as a 'sword welding hero' which came to an end when he had met her mother. Laura took the sword and held it in a two handed grip then a one handed. She easily held the blade in either grip; years of working her family's farm had made her strong and she could wield with ease. She needed to know whether it was still sharp after the years of neglect, after all it would do her little good if it was no shaper than a butter knife. She saw a thick candle stick that was standing on a spare table that sat in the far corner. She swung the sword and cut the candle in two. She went back to the chest and found took out the leather sheaf. She tied the sheaf around her waist and slipped the sword inside careful as to not to cut herself. She quietly crept back up the stairs and unlocked the front door then stepped outside.

The cold night air bite into her but fortunately her cloths held the worst of it at bay. She looked around her small home town with casual disinterest. It was nothing special. She imagined that a traveller would find it's like all across Skyrim. Houses sat in small clumps or rolls dirt roads and rough stone streets and foot paths weaved in around the houses and small farms and stores that doubted the town. Most of the homes had their own crops or life stock to feed hungry families or to sell to the larger towns and cities. Up the road a ways sat the tavern, bright light and song pored form its windows. It was the largest building in town which given the Nord's love of drink and other activity's, it came as no surprise to her that the tavern was still doing business even at this late hour. She wondered absently if her two close friends Veerak and Palio's were still at working, the former a bard, the latter a kitchen hand.

As she walked around the town she couldn't help but notice watch tower that sat on top of a hill overlooking, not only her home of Sulag'g gully but three others that rested in the valleys and foot hills that nested between Eastmarch and Whiterun. Ever vignette for trouble such as bandits or the occasional rough giant or wild animal. She could just make out the fires keeping the guards warm on this cold night flicking in the distance. She walked quickly down the dirt road, searching for what may have caused the uneasy feeling that had taken root in her spirit. She must have walked the length and breath of the town but found nothing except for few drunks whom were wondering home form the tavern and a few other towns' folk that milled around the town. 'Had they also felt something amiss to?' she wondered but dismissed the thought as she saw some guards who were sitting at a small round table playing with dice betting with a few septims or core cards. She started heading back to her house feeling quite silly. After all what could she do, she was a famers daughter not some great hero they would wright songs about. Lost in thought as she was she almost bumped into her friend Hella. Hella was twenty one and were Laura was tall and thin with hair as black as night; Hella was short, broad and compact with that was as red a snowberry's. A truer Nord she could not hope to find. Hella put a friendly hand on Laura's shoulder a kind if worried smile filled her slight puffy face. "Laura why are you up so late?" she asked a searching look on her friends face for answers. "I could ask the same of you…but I don't know I just felt off….I can't really explain it" Laura said feeling a brush of embarrassment fill her cheeks. Hella nodded in agreement "Ah you know I can't get a full night sleep not with the little one here" Hella said smirking as she laid a hand on her swollen belly. It was hers and her husband first child. By Laura's racking it was a little over due to show its face to the world. "But I know what you mean…. I don't know what I felt…but it wasn't right" she said shrugging. As Laura was about to agree when something loud and deep roared of in the distance, the thunderous noise filled the night caring the doom roll of an approaching storm with it. It was almost a scream but deeper almost like the sound of a tall and ancient tree toppling over. The sound grew deeper, causing many dogs to flee from their homes and run around barking, others ran for the wilds. Livestock hooted and brayed as they tried to fallow the dog's example. Pair of guards alarmed by the noise pulled their weapons ready for a fight only to be knocked over by a fleeing horse. "What in oblivion was that?" Hella yelled to be heard over the din of panicking animals. Laura felt her hand find the hilt of the sword at her hip. She had no experience in fighting but the feel of the steel in her hand helped quell the fear that bubbled up inside her. "I don't know" she said crewing, her lip. Everything went quiet again, too quiet almost like all noise had disserted the world. Despite the animals trying desperately to free themselves or the confused cater of the towns folk most of whom had left their homes, awoken by the roar. It was the kind of quiet that filled the world between a lighting strike and the thunder that followed. A terrible silence, sure enough another roar echoed through the night sky this one far closer than the last. Laura stepped into the middle of the street trying to get a bearing on the sound. Her eyes fell upon the watch tower on the hill than her gaze was drawing towards it by an impulse she could not comprehend. She saw for one brief moment a vast shadow against the twin moons Masser and Seconda in the sky. The roar sounded even louder than before, it was so loud and close she along with everyone else had to cover their ears for fear it might turn them deaf. As one the town turned to see the shadow again. Closer this time it neared the bight fires of the watch towers. The light created by the flames was enough for them to see a great serpentine body with wings that looked from a distance to be at the very ten meters from tip to tip. An almost primal fear crept into Laura's heart as if on some unconscious level she knew what this creature was. However fear stole its name from her tongue. "By the Nine" she wisped than looked around in fear of being heard. As any sane person would, though Eastmarch was the very heart of the Stormcloak rebellion, it was still un-wise to speck of Talos as a divine in public. The Thalmor had spy's everywhere and as long as the Empire operated by the weight gold concordat the warship of Talos was strictly forbidden even specking his name could get one's whole family thrown in prison. Or so they said. Not that this matter at the moment but she had to be careful.

The town's folk gaze fell upon the tower. They stood there, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, staring in disbelief at the fleeting shadow of a flying nightmare. Then there was one last roar, a roar so powerful it shock the ground under foot, many of the towns folk started backing away ready to flee at a moment's notice. The terrible silence returned the whole town fell into silence and then they saw it. A great flying beast screamed its rage into the night's cold air and fell upon the guard tower. A great plume of fire left the monsters mouth and hit the guard tower with enough force to shake it to its foundations. The screaming of guards filled the night those same screams were soon taken up by the panicked towns' folk as they scampered to flee to their homes or to the wilds. Hella reacted on instinct and pulled Laura out of the crowded streets and in-between the bakery, which was a solid brick building and the baker's house. As she did this the crowd broke into a mad stampede. The guards Laura had seen, before the monsters attack tried desperately to calm the panicked mob and organize a retreat from the town but no one was listening to them and several fights between the mob and guards soon broke out. Until the flying beast flew though the air over the town bellowing a deafening roar as it came. The madness that erupted from the first sight of the flying beast was as nothing compared to the chaos that was berthed into been as the creature staffed the town with its fire breathe.

For the first time Hella and Laura saw the beast in profile as the street lanterns and touches that lined the streets as well as the monsters own flame created enough light to see it. The monster was enormous it had a long serpentine body that must have been fifthteen full grown men in length at least. It wings were huge bat like with elongated claws starched out like the fingers of a hand, the skin stretched between the bones. It had elongated tail that ended in a spear like growth of bone. Where the tail met the body was two massive legs each were thickness of a great oak. The legs ended in three claws that were as long as swords. Its torsos and chest were easily the width of three full grown mountain bears. It had a short thick neck and a large pointed head that was crusted with curved spikes and horns as it flew over the town as it blowed. The teeth in its great maw were each the size of a large dagger and just as sharp. As it passed overhead both young women saw it was covered in thick scales the colour of storm clouds, a flawless slate grey the edges if its scales were a dark trim. Hella and Laura saw the truth of this fact as it angled its neck and head to snap up a fleeing man. It bit into the man not bothering to swallow, instead letting the bloody left overs fall amidst the chaos of the mob, covering many of them in gore. "By the gods….." Laura said felling a sudden need to vomit up her last meal. She barely fought the, impose down the vile taste of bile filled burned her mouth. In that moment Hella knew what she and her friend had seen. All the bed time tails she had been told as a child, all the songs and legends flowing unheeded into her mind. Leavening no doubt, she griped friend's shoulders to make Laura look her in the eye. "You know what that thing is don't you?" Hella exclaimed fear boiling in her blue eyes. Laura looked at her dumbly. "It's a dragon the harbingers of the end times"

Laura blinked dumbly as her mind reeled from what her friend had told her "A dragon? … But that…that's imposable their myth nothing more…. A tail I would tall tell Shar'man and…." Her eyes widen 'how in the names of the divines, could she have forgotten her family?' She turned sharply in the direction of her house and her eyes fell upon the dragon that was flying in the same direction. She started to run.

She ran into the crowded streets pushing and shoving people out of her way. Belatedly she resized that Hella was running after her calling her name but she was deaf to her friend's calls, she had to get to her family, she had to get them out of the house and flee the town before it was too late.

As Laura ran, she belatedly saw that the dragon use its horrible fire to destroy whole rows of houses. Fire however was not its only weapon. Sometimes it would breathe ice so cold it would freeze a man solid in a moment. It also shot lighting from its mouth turning whole groups of people into ash. How she did she resize its roars were not the call of some mindless animal, its roars, hiss's and other noise's sounded almost like words of some long forgotten langrage. A langrage that made her skin craw and her brain hurt.

It turned its head to spot a cluster of stone houses that people were using as shelter and then it spoke. "Fus ro dah" and a tilde wave of invisible power ripped though the air and shamed into the homes obligating them and the people hide among them in an instant.

The fearful screaming of the people who were running in the streets only grew in volume. Some fled for the wilds others tried in vain to put the fires out, running with buckets filled with water dawn from nearby wells. To Laura's horror many of the townsfolk lay dead in the streets. Some had been crushed by the madness that had consumed the crowd; others had been ripped apart by the dragon's teeth or claws. Yet others still had been burnt by the fires that now leapt from building to building filling the air with hot dry smoke. Laura finally reached her house it had been yet been untouched by the dragons rage.

"Thank the God's" Laura said breathing out a heavy sigh. Hella right behind her, her husband Ronan had joined them sometime during the run though the town carrying bags over shoulders, the small group was out of breath.

Laura was about to run into her house when she saw her father silhouette though the windows moving around, he properly getting a few merger belonging and her bothers together. Her father may have been stubborn but he was no fool.

Then she heard it. The dragon roared once again as it flew over Laura's house, it turned far fast than something of its size should have be capable of and dived towards her home.

The moment stretched out forever, time melting away. Laura yelled for her family to get out.

Too late

Hella and Ronan ran forward to pull her back into safety.

Too late

The dragon let loss a great burst of fire. The wave of nightmarish flame hit Laura's house like blast from angry god. "NO!" Laura screamed. The infernal blast was too powerful her house, her family were obliterated. The force of the blast sent her flying backwards flames licking her skin and cloths as she crashed into a Ronan flooring them both. Fortunately Hella was far enough away to not be hit by the wave of heat that boiled away from the explosion.

Laura screamed in agony as ambers of fame eat at her cloths and burnt her fair skin. Reacting on instant Hella grasped a bucket of water from a nearby well and thrown it on her young friend. With the fames out Ronan helped Laura to her feet and everything went black.

Present

Cold wind bit into Laura making her shiver, the storm she had use to hide herself and the child had gotten worse, the show fall was blinding. Wind stealing the baby's cries away. She had to find shelter if she didn't, it wouldn't matter if her processes caught up to her. She and the child would be long dead. She stumbled through the snow storm that fell upon the vast wilderness.

She heard a howl in the distance, but she could not see though the swelling show fall. She cursed her luck and Gods for her misfortune. What had she done to earn this punishment? She wondered as she tugged though the snow.

She saw something blocky in the distance, she squinted her eyes to see. It was too board and flat to be a tree. Hope swelled in her heart.

Laura redoubled her efforts battling through the blinding wind. She was reworded for her determination, when a small wooded hut materialised out of the snow. "Thank the nine…eight… oh who cares!" she whispered to the small baby in her arms. He looked up at her and smiled seemly untroubled by the cold. He was a Nord after all, ice and cold was in their very morrow.

She sloughed though the thick snow and knocked on the door, hoping that someone was inside. There was no response. She tried the door handle; it was hard going trying the juggle the baby and twist open the door knob. Giving the knob one final twist and giving the door and all mighty shove the door with her shoulder, it finally opened and she rushed inside.

It was dark inside and nearly as cold as the wind that racked wilderness she had just escaped, she closed the door behind her. The windows were covered in ice making it imposable to see anything beyond the vague outline of furniture, enough light made it through the ice to illuminate a fire place. If there was some fire wood around than she and the child could get warm. She stomped though the dark until she found a small table and placed the baby on it. The baby started crying. "Shh shhh it's all right honey auntie, Laura is right here" Laura told the baby softly before giving him a kiss on the check which seemed to calm him.

Laura navigated the dark until she found a jug that was filled with oil and some fire wood, she couldn't find any flint rocks or any dry leafs to start the fire. The baby was crying again.

Determined to save both their life's she put the wood in the fire place and splashed some oil onto it. Having no other option, she concentrated all her energy into her hands in till beads of sweet started forming on her forehead. Even though she was a Breton and her race was renowned for their magical abilities, her own magic was never very strong and she had never learned how to use it properly the best she could do was create a small fire. "Come on work dam it" she muttered redoubling her efforts. Her hands posed with weak energy, she focused on that energy making it grow hotter and hotter. Until a small flame was born, it danced in the palm of her hand. She feed more energy into it, her body shaking with the effort.

The flame grew from the size of her thumb to the size of a small apple. Laura forced her energy outwards in the detraction of the fire place. The fire in her hand shot through the air and hit the wood and thanks to the oil she had added, instantly caught on fire. Warmth and light soaked though the cold hut. She took off her damp cloak and placed it near the fire and went to the table where she left the crying baby. She looked down at his round face and stoked it softly.

"It's alright baby" she cooed "Aunty Laura isn't going anywhere" she said smiling even as she tried to hold back her tears. He looked so much like Hella and Ronan. He had his father's kind eyes and his mother's, nose and mouth. She smelt a stench coming from him. "Pew U mister man someone needs a change and a bath." She told him. The baby gigged and wigged his fingers and toes.

She picked up the baby and held him to her chest. "Let's see what we can find here hum?" She said, finding a lantern on a nearby cardboard and using a match to light it. She started looking around the inside of the dusty hut.

There were a few chairs and a large table with dusty plates set out as if someone was about to set out a meal for their family. She found that the hut was much larger than she first though it was more like a house. She found some old cooking pots and pans some dried fruits and salted meats. They were still good to eat. Preserved by whoever had lived here. She found a few bottles of milk, what kind she could not say. The milk had been preserved by the cold. She also found a small bath tub and some spare sheets and clothes and a few other loss ends here and there.

Laura couldn't help wonder who had lived here had why they had left. Perhaps the snow storm had forced them out or something more sinister had happed to them. Whatever their fate it was not her concern all she cared about was persevering hers and the baby's life.

She briefly went outside to gather snow and in the largest pot she could found and put it over the fire, once the snow had melted she poured it into the small bath tub having found some soap she ran a bath for herself and the baby. She removed both their cloths and bathed.

He quite enjoyed playing in the warm water. Once that was done she dried herself and the baby off and cut some rags into dippers and placing them on the baby. She dressed the baby than herself.

She was able to mush up some of the food she found and feed him. He was a bit fussy but eventually he ate.

Next chapter lost in a fog.

Au for those of you who may be wondering where is the dragon born is aka my characters, his coming don't worry I just wanted to ease into this story fist before gating on to the ace , plot etc. This chapter's main focus is set up but don't worry dragon born will meet up with Laura and you will find out more of her back story in the next chapter.

I hope you enjoyed this please read and review.

Yours Alaster Boneman


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